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; UNITED STATES PATENT OrEicE.

`EDSON L. BRYANT, OF ANSONIA, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO WALLACE & SONS, OF SAME PLACE.

LAM P-STAN DARD.

* SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 441,393, dated November 25, 1890.

Application filed April 24, 1890. Serial No. 849,272. (No model.)

To a/ZZ whom t may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDsoN L. BRYANT, of Ansonia, in the county ot New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in Lamp-Standards; and I do hereby declare the following, taken in connection with accompanying drawings, and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description ot the same, and which lo said drawings constitute part of this specilication, and represent in- Figure l, a vertical central section of so much of the standard as necessary to the illustration of the invention; Fig. 2, a transverse section through the standard above the dog on line zr Q0 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a side view of t-he adjustable tube, showing the groove and notches.

This invention relates to an improvement 2o in standards for that class of lamps which are supported upon standards resting on the iioor, and particularly to that class in which the standard is of telescopic character, composed of an outer tube supported from the base, with an inner tube adapted to slide up and down in the outer tube, the said inner tube carrying the lamp-fomit, and whereby the fount may be raised or lowered, as may be desirable. In this class ot lamps some device is necessary to hold the adjustable or inner tube when it is brought to the desired position, so as to prevent its accidental descent. It is desirable that such device should make a positive lock; but in the more general arrange- 3 5 ment and construction such a positive lock requires some special manipulation by one hand, while the other hand is applied to adjust the elevation of the fount, owing to the fact that such positive locking devices are more or less complicated and `require considerable mechanical ability in making the adjustment. Frictional devices are more generally depended upon, although not generally as reliable against accidental disadjustment as a positive lock.

The object of my invention is the construction of a device which may be simple, easily understood, and substantially automatic in its action; and it consists in the construction,

o as hereinafter described, and more particularly recited in the claim.

A represents the tube of the standard, which is made fast to the base B, as' usual in this construction of standards; C, the adjustable tube, which is arranged inside the tube A, and so as to slide freely up and down therein, the said tube C carrying the fount (not shown) at the upper end in the usual manner.

On a suitable bracket D, made fast to the stationary tube A, a dog E is hung on a pivot .6o F, this dog being arranged to swing in a vertical plane, and should be in the diametrical plane of the standard. Its nose G- works through an opening II in the tube A, and so as to extend into the tube C. rlhe tube C is constructed with a series of holes or notches c a, with which the nose G of the dog may engage, as clearly seen in Fig. l. The dog E is a gravity-dog-that is, its own gravity tends to turn it toward the tube C, and so that nor- 7o mally it may rest therein. The dog is par-l tially counterbalanced by an extension I upon the opposite side of the pivot, so that the action of gravity will not be too quick. The pivot F ot the dog being at some distance from the vertical plane in which the nose of the dog engages the tube C, if the tube C be raised the nose of the dog will be turned outward, as represented in broken lines, Fig. l, and so as to readily permit the tube to be 8o drawn up to any desired position; 'but when brought to rest with one of the notches or holes a in the proper position with relation to the nose ot the dog G the dog will drop therein, as represented in Fig. 1, and lock the tube C against descent, and thus positively hold it in that position. If it is required to drop the tube C, the tube is iirst raised, so as to throw the dog into its disengaged position,

as seen in broken lines, Fig. l, and then the 9o tube C forced quickly downwarf Theaction of the dog under gravity is so slow that it will not have sufiicient time to engage the passing notches a while descending so quickly; but when the descent is retarded or made so slow that the dog under the action of gravity may fall into one of the notches, then that notch will be engaged and prevent further descent. The sluggish action of the dog permits the quick movement of the tube C, as I have deroo scribed, so as to prevent the engagement of the dog until the `desired point is reached,

when the automatic engagement is made by simply retarding the movement of the tube C.

In order to maintain the line of notches in line with the plane of the dog, and so as to insure engagement., it is necessary to prevent rotation of the tube C in the tube A. To accomplish this, the tube C is constructed with a vertical groove J in the line of the notches, the notches being in the bottom of the groove and so that the nose of thev dog will stand in the groove when it is thrown outward, as before described, and thus standing in the groove operates as a stop to prevent rotation o f the tube. The notches, however, may be annular, as indicated by broken lines, Fig. 3, so that the dog would engage the notch at any point in the circumference of the tube C, or rotation may be prevented by making the vertical groove in the tube C at some other point inthe tube, as represented by broken lines in Fig. 2, and introducing a pin through the tubeA to extend into the tube C. A boss K surrounds the dog and the portions of the tube adjacent thereto, this being a common construction for inclosing or concealing the mechanism or part of the apparatus which it is desired to conceal, and, as usual, a jacket L is placed around the outer tube. Preferably a spiral springM is arranged in the tube A, resting on the base, and against the upper end of which the tube C will bear, so as to act as a slight resistance to the tube C and forni a cushion against the descent ot' the tube. The spring may also serve as a counter-balance, which will to some extent take the weight of the tube C and the lamp it carries, and thus reduce the amount of power necessary to raise the tube C.

I have described the adjustable part C as a tube, and, while this is preferred and is the usual construction, it will be understood that this is not necessarily a tube, but may be a solid rod. I therefore by the term tube C wish to be understood as including this element C, whether it be made tubular or solid. I claim Y In a lamp-standard consisting of a stationary tube, a tube adjustable therein and adaptcd to carry the lamp-fount, the said adjust'- able tube constructed wit-l1 a series of notches one above another, combined with a swinging gravity-dog hung upon a stationary pivot in the stationary tube and so as to swing in a vertical plane, the dog adapted under its own gravity to engage either of the notches in the adjustable tube as it is presented thereto to positively lock the said adjustable tube, but to escape said notches in the rapid descent ot' the tube, substantially as described.

EDSON L. BRYANT.

Witnesses:

LILLIAN D. KELSEY, FRED C. EARLE. 

